Chapter Nineteen
The Dress RehearsalWhitehall, New York
August 8, 1926
Although Kelly and Costello had spent the summer training for the Dempsey fight, Kelly had forgotten one important element—Dempsey had never agreed to the fight. In fact, Dempsey was training to fight Gene Tunney for the heavyweight title in September.
But Dempsey was putting on a public boxing exhibition in Saratoga on August 15. So, unbeknownst to the champ, Kelly would arrange to be his sparring partner that day and would turn their session into a brawl so memorable that Dempsey would instantly recognize Kelly’s talent. This, in turn, would vault the major into the upper echelons of professional boxing.
Or that was how Kelly’s dream always ended.
When Zho learned that a Dempsey fight had never actually been sc
